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Uncover definitions, examples and even test questions. Are you confused about the usage of the words, empathy and sympathy? The next two empathy statements are crucial in signing off with a customer and staying empathetic. “Your satisfaction means everything to us. However, you must be careful that advisors are being respectful when using this line! Displaying respect and empathy for the customer’s opinions demonstrates the advisor’s consideration for their client’s predicament. In the Customer Service, empathy is the possibility to fuel connection with the customer, it also provides an emotional bridge, enables the sharing of experiences, needs, and desires. Establishing that you want to extract as much information as possible from the customer indicates your attentiveness and curiosity in the matter at hand. Empathy, sympathy and compassion also share elements with other forms … Sympathy vs. Apathy. Providing a close, but realistic, timeframe for when a customer query can be answered, if it cannot be solved immediately, should again take responsibility away from the customer and allow them to relax. Empathy statements are short phrases that help you establish a connection with the person you are talking to. In looking at the difference between sympathy and empathy, you must first understand what they are. “Is there anything I can do for you today, big or small?”. The empathy statements presented above are great for this and can be used in many different difficult customer situations. Empathy is the ability to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” — while sympathy is feeling the same feelings as the customer and agreeing with them. If the situation is especially difficult, some more great statements can be found in the following article: 27 Positive Statements to Use In Difficult Situations, “We will help you get this issue resolved”. Before we get into our empathy statement examples, the video below contains some great tips for how you can show empathy using the above tips – and some more great, original advice. Sympathy is rarely an ideal response to a customer's problem. This knowledge positions you to render better service, which leaves the customer feeling understood & valued. Successfully building a rapport with customers over the phone is very important to providing a good service or increasing sales. 26. “We value customers who provide their feedback. There are actually three types of empathy (click here to learn more). If I were in your position, I would feel the same way. But the work doesn’t end at signing candidates with the right traits. Reminding customers of the business’s ever-willing support for them helps to conclude with a sustained empathetic approach, and the use of the word “us” summarises the collaborative culture on which empathy is based. The problem with empathy is that it … Get all the latest news straight to your inbox, 27 Positive Statements to Use In Difficult Situations, Top 25 Positive Words, Phrases and Empathy Statements, How to Coach Empathy in the Contact Centre – With Three Training Exercises, Customer Service Skills: How to Improve Empathy, Active Listening and Knowledge, Webinar: Customer Experience Tips from Great Contact Centres, Whitepaper: How to Elevate Customer Experience in the Age of Digital Transformation, eBook: Communication is Key to Remote Work, Contact Centre Reports, Surveys and White Papers, 27 Effective Ways to Build Customer Rapport, Guide - The State of the Contact Centre: Embracing the Evolving World of Work, Webinar: Metrics- Surpassing Industry Standards. Most customers shop from brands with which they develop an emotional bond. Don’t confuse empathy for sympathy: empathy is where you feel and share someone’s feelings, attitudes, and experiences. Conveying the advisor’s experience in handling calls of this nature provides the customer with a strong indication of the ability of the call centre professional to find a swift solution to the query. I will be sure to pass on what you have told me to our managerial team”. In some cases, people experiencing empathy actually go beyond understanding another's experience and can actually feel it. Customer service can’t always deliver solutions, but it can always deliver empathy. It is really very similar in social media. “I have experienced a similar problem recently, so I understand what you are saying. It’s certainly more difficult on social media as you have less text to play with and it is more visible. 9. A sympathetic response could be: "I'm also unhappy with the way that product works." A … This doesn’t mean, however, that you cannot use sympathy or sympathize to describe “sharing or understanding the feelings of another.” The word sympathize is 300 years empathy’s senior with this meaning. 6. Your newsletters have been extremely helpful. It’s a bit cliche, but putting yourself in the customer’s shoes is still one of the best approaches you can take. When a customer calls about an issue, they may be frustrated and want you to listen to them. Expressing the desire to listen deeply to the customer, by giving them the opportunity to correct your understanding of their query, reinforces the customer–advisor connection. Empathy is a great tool to help show customers that you are on their side. They realize there’s a learning curve on occasion. Now with social media in place as yet another platform for customer support, (Facebook,Twitter,instagram,etc) how can we address empathy as in this case you don’t speak to a customer live as in a call. Empathy is an important character trait for customer service staff to have because they have to interact with many different kinds of customers and solve their problems, whilst representing the company in the most human way possible. Empathy vs. Assuring the customer of your desire to resolve their complaint should allow them to recognise your care and understanding for the individual’s problems. What is true 100% of the time, however, is that when a customer reaches out for service, she wants to be heard and feel like the person on the other end of the conversation truly understands what she’s going through. In order to minimise customer frustration at spending too long on the phone, your agents should use the five empathy statements for irate customers to alleviate such feelings on behalf of the client and demonstrate a caring approach. Imagine for a moment … Involving the customer in the process of clarifying and solving their enquiry allows them to feel encouraged as to its progress and does not leave them “stuck in the middle”. What Are the Best Words and Phrases for Building Rapport? Having empathy can improve your customer service skills because you can anticipate their wants and needs. It is through empathy that the customer service agent establishes rapport with the customer. Customer Service. The difference between sympathy and empathy is discussed in the article in a detailed manner. Thanks to Matthew MacLachlan, Head of Intercultural and Communication Skills Training at Learnlight. Reaffirming the intention for a quick and appropriate resolution again builds rapport. Every customer service agent is also a customer, after all. What’s often most frustrating is the time they need to take from their already-busy schedules to make a call, complain via social media, write an email or make an in-person visit in order to explain what happened. Get the latest exciting call centre reports, specialist whitepapers, interesting case-studies and industry events straight to your inbox. Whist reassuring the customer of their enquiry’s importance to the business, it is also important for advisors to provide them with a sense of immediacy. Thus, customer service agents must use both diagnostic and enactment skills to perform empathic communication effectively, a coupling that we call empathy work. In fact, they go through a professional empathy training and presentations to learn the art of empathy. The ability to put yourself in the shoes of a customer gives you a better perspective and context of the customer and how he/she might be feeling at the time. This is a fairly broad definition, and can be used to describe a wide range of experiences. “Thank you very much for alerting us about this…”. But the use of the word “we” also indicates that it is a team effort and that you are prioritising the matter. This is essential for building empathy in customer service. If we apply the entire article in social media it’s important to have a personal connection in a public venue. Be genuine, honest and be yourself. Use contractions/short forms of verbs: you’re, can’t, he’s, don’t, etc. Finally, let us take a look at some common examples of empathy vs. sympathy just to summarize and ensure that we have a complete grasp on what makes the difference between sympathy and empathy. Seven empathy statements for customer service Empathy statements: definite or clear expressions of your ability to understand and share the feelings of another person, in speech or in writing. Empathy is defined as “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person”. Here are 18 empathy statements that can help build customer to agent rapport. Compare: “This will be resolved by our team” with: “I will ask our team to resolve this.”. While sympathy and empathy are not mutually exclusive, sympathy merely concedes a problem exists. Acknowledging a customer’s personal holidays and future plans allows your advisor to add a personal touch to the interaction, and basing your actions around a customer’s schedule demonstrates an empathetic approach. Demonstrating that there are no time limits in the job description of your agents, this phrase illustrates that there are not company constraints on providing great customer service. “I can see where the problem is, Sir/Madam…”. Now that the call is coming to a close, agents must still maintain a respectful tone and maintain their empathetic attitude so that customers feel comfortable voicing more concerns and stay satisfied with the service received. Highlighting that your company appreciates feedback, whilst alluding to the notion that you’d like to act on it, demonstrates your will to relieve them of any future hassle. Empathy is a mature and professional response to a customer’s issue; sympathy, on the other hand, is reactionary. I assure you to share it with the respective team.” “What I’m currently doing to help you is…”. Making a commitment such as this and then following it up should help you to establish a basis of trust between the company and the customer, which helps in forming a long-standing relationship. These two empathy phrases will help advisors to do so: 1. To finish up, here’s a graphic showing are some of our favourite empathy statements, which can really work well in any customer service environment. When doing so, the agent should use empathetic statements to convey their interest in and attentiveness to the customer’s enquiry. 18. Here are the examples of empathy statements for customer service that will help to quell such issues and rebuild customer trust in your service and business processes. Let me see what I can do to help you out”. Empathy, sympathy and compassion are defined and conceptualised in many different ways in the literature and the terms are used interchangeably in research reports and in everyday speech. They feel that you understand their situation and that you want to help them as a priority. Encouraging future contact helps to show your company’s commitment to strengthening your relationship with the customer and fosters the progression of the customer–agent rapport. When you use personal pronouns (and especially “I” rather than a more corporate “we”) the listener understands that you are personally involved and interested in them as an individual. 4. The use of the word empathy versus the use of the word sympathy has been a cause of mistake for several speakers of the language. The following statements can be part of your empathy training for customer service, enhancing the relationship with customers and showing them you truly care about their needs: The three empathy statements below demonstrate how to do so. Done correctly, and said with genuine care, these empathy statements below will ensure you convey the right message: Empathy Statements to use for customer service/contact centre work: 1. Empathy is the Key to Excellent Service. Here, empathy statements are vital so that the customer does not get frustrated at having to repeat themselves. May you please support the platform. These two remarks will allow the agent to avoid this. Many years ago, I participated in a training for a call center Customer Service Representative (CSR) position. “Can you tell me a little more about it, please?”. Researchers in the field have endeavored to divide this general definition between two different types of empathy: Cognitive and Affective. Then, by signalling that the problem has now gone, the advisor has demonstrated that a solution is available. “Can you tell me a little more about it, please?”. In a customer support interaction, it’s not always easy to convey empathy or understanding of a customer’s situation. Customer service representatives should utilize their empathetic skills to understand exactly what upsets customers when they call their customer service center and use that knowledge to their advantage. 12. “When I am done, if I have got something wrong, I would appreciate it if you would correct me, if that is ok?”. Customers understand that products and services won’t always work as intended. I would prefer ‘I appreciate your situation/frustration’. “You’re absolutely correct, Sir/Madam”. I can understand how frustrating that could be.” Maybe also say “if you have any more problems contact us directly via….” That could certainly help. Of course, this is easier said than done for customer service agents. That’s why they prioritize empathy in the hiring process. Remember we are dealing with emotions. By letting them tell you all the details before responding, you … break a Leg Wave 19, Absolutely brilliant work, these are great empathy words. 14. Empathy allows you to rationally think through an issue and empowers you to imagine solutions. If he’s correct, then all you need to do is remind yourself that you know what the customer is going through to put yourself in their shoes. 11. Having empathy in your customer service conversations would lead to happier and loyal customers. Once your advisor has all such information at their fingertips, the situation must next be clarified to ensure that your frontline worker and their customer are both “on the same page”. Situation #1 : A friend of yours has had to put her companion, a 15-year-old border collie down due to … The following examples of empathy statements will connect you to and reassure your customer: 6. ), and I will be in touch shortly”. These genuine examples of showing empathy will help you identify situations where you can show empathy in professional and personal settings. In such a situation, building an empathetic atmosphere is key to maintaining strong customer relations. May I suggest “I appreciate you contacting me regarding this and can certainly understand why this is frustrating…..I would like to confirm a few details so that our team can better resolve the issue without delay Please sent us a private message with your account information so we can get started right away .”. 17. This is why you should stop any line of sympathy and instead focus on empathy, as the Apple Genius Manual suggests. As well as reassuring the customer and providing them with a sense of immediacy, making a commitment to them helps to comfort customers with the knowledge that their issue is being treated. “We will work to resolve the problem. “This should be fixed by the end of the weekend, Mr Smith”. The Value of Empathy. 5. What is empathy? Tip – As well using respectful, compassionate and attentive language to empathise with the customer, reassuring noises can also serve for same purpose. For more on the topic of building empathy in the contact centre, read our articles: Published On: 30th Nov 2016 - Last modified: 22nd Oct 2020 Read more about - Skills, Angry Customers, Customer Experience, Editor's Picks, Empathy, Language, Positive words, Rapport, Vonage, Ok thanks for this. Pure silence on the agent’s part can cause the customer to feel helpless, so agents should use such noises to assure the client of their focus and understanding. Is There Still Space for the Office Space? “Hi there Scott!” “That’s a … “Do let us know if you have any further questions, Mr Smith”. 16. , The Importance of Empathy Versus Sympathy in Customer Service, Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS), Integration, Customization and Implementation, How To Reduce Credit Card Processing Fees, New West Technologies - Point of Sale Software, Hardware and Implementation Providers. Choose the content that you want to receive. Ways to Express Empathy to Customers. Recognising the urgency of the query and assuring the client that they were right to contact the advisor allows the customer to believe that all their efforts are valued by your company. “I want to make sure that I really have an understanding of what you’re telling me. This involves reassuring the customer that the company is striving to resolve their issue and further building customer–advisor rapport. Empathy is the ability to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” — while sympathy is feeling the same feelings as the customer and agreeing with them. Beginning a Customer Service Conversation: “Thanks for reaching out about this!” “I’m sorry to hear that you are having trouble.” “I understand how that could be frustrating.” “I’m happy to help!” A personal, conversational greeting, ie. Have we covered everything that you wanted to discuss today?”. Empathy and sympathy are traits that are, on the whole, collectively good — it’s good to have a society that tries to understand other perspectives and offer support for people who need it. The first version is anonymous, lacking personality and has no underlying responsibility, whilst the second makes you believe that there is a real person actively working to fix an issue, and who might physically chase the team until it is done. The best way is to mirror the behaviour and language that the customer uses. 15. When you show deep empathy towards others, their defensive energy goes down and positive energy replaces it. This gives a more reasonable response and I would only use ‘I understand’ when clarifying facts. its very helpful especially we are doing our mock call today! 7. One of the best ways to learn empathy skills is through customer service representatives, call center agents, sales executives and counselors. Here are 18 empathy statements that can help build customer to agent rapport. “We will help you get this issue resolved”. Authenticity means using a natural tone, and less formal ways of speaking. Learn more about this topic in the lesson titled Empathy in Customer Service. The first duty of an agent when handling a customer query is to assess the situation. The two basic ways of expressing empathy is through effective verbal and non-verbal communication. Using the right customer service phrases in your live chat and phone communication with customers makes all the difference between a bad service and a delightful one. “We always value customers who are keen to give us their feedback. 8. Exhibiting that you are proactive when receiving criticism and that your advisors are in constant communication with their superiors helps to assure aggrieved customers that the right procedures are in place to handle their complaints. Empathy assures the guest that you sense the value of the issue to them personally. Empathy is having the ability to understand what another person experiences from their point of view. Sympathy, on the other hand, is when you feel sorry for their troubles. Empathy allows … You just enjoy your (birthday/holidays/Christmas break, etc. Acknowledging customer concerns shows empathy and understanding, and is essential to great communication and great service. Depending on the situation, a service interaction may be as short as a few minutes or -- when you add up multiple engagements -- more than an hour. Sadly, empathy is not displayed as often as it might be in customer service… The words “I” and “you” are essential in empathy statements for irate customers, as well as other types of challenging customers, as will be highlighted later. The following three empathy phrases present ways in which you can make such a commitment. “Empathy is different from sympathy. “Do let us know if you have any further questions, Mr Smith”. “Empathy is different from sympathy. This is particularly important for angry customers. A deeper understanding of empathy and empathetic statements can lead to better relationships and even a chance to be a more successful leader. So maybe “Thanks for letting us know about the problem. When the advisor has a full understanding of the matter at hand, that individual should make the process of what happens next clear to the customer. They show that the other person is your sole focus and that you are taking personal responsibility for them in this conversation. Instead, show empathy. It is more important to be natural, calm and positive than to get the exact phrasing correct. “I appreciate you bringing this to our attention, so that we can deal with this immediately”. Sympathy is like having concern and pity for another person's problems and misfortunes. How Virtual Assistants is Important for Your ... Post Covid-19 hybrid (home/office based) cust... 4 Things Contact Centres Can Learn from Father Christmas. 13. Reading standard empathy phrases without being authentic creates resentment and can increase anger. I’m hearing that…”. Thanks to Neil Wilkins, Telesales and Customer Service Coach/Trainer. A person feels sympathy — but shares empathy.”. Drawing on their own experiences singles the advisor out from the company that the customer feels aggravated by. Use “thanks” instead of “thank you”; “hi” instead of “hello”; “enjoy the rest of your day” instead of “good bye”. So, replace passive verbs with active verbs, which add a sense of immediacy. With that knowledge, a customer empathy map is a tool that helps you connect to your ideal customers. I would certainly acknowledge that there is a problem. With thanks to David Filwood, Principal Consultant at TeleSoft Systems. You will learn new topics like: How word choice and tone can affect customer service Most customer service teams respond to customers with sympathy. In order to successfully validate a customer’s wants and needs, empathy is a must. The two examples below will help to quell such issues and rebuild customer faith in your business’s processes. Agents with strong empathic abilities are overall better at creating long-term customer relationships. Empathy is the ability to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes”. You can share or even understand the pain someone is going through without going through it yourself.. To embed empathy at the core of your customer service experience, you also need to clear the hurdles and build the systems that give great agents an opportunity to shine. Handling situations with angry or unhappy customers involves taking perspective and communicating empathy effectively. In this training, supervisors role played various scenarios using real-life examples from calls that had come in to the center, illustrating the powerful concept of using empathy versus sympathy in customer encounters. “I will contact you as soon as we have had an update”. On the other hand, empathy means actually feeling that pain, which another person has undergone. There are a few simple communication techniques that can have a large impact on the quality of customer service and the engagement process. “Is there anything else that I can help you with today, Mr Smith?”. The Top 12 Acknowledgement Statements for Customer Service, Positive Language for Customer Service Conversations, Erlang C Calculator Excel Including Shrinkage, Monthly Forecasting Excel Spreadsheet Template, Multi-Channel Contact Centre Calculator Tool – Phone Email Chat, The Top 25 Words to Describe Yourself on Your CV, 18 Empathy Statements That Help Improve Customer-Agent Rapport, The Top 100 Excellent Customer Service Quotes, The Best Customer Service Greeting Phrases – with Examples, 50 Quick Ideas to Improve Contact Centre Performance, 15 Great Ideas to Make Remote Working Fun, 10 Employee-Focused Customer Service Goals. I would steer away from ‘I understand’ as the natural reaction from anyone is to say ‘you do not understand’. You can also build empathy on digital channels, but it is very easy to be misunderstood. Therefore, if you want repeat customers due to brand affinity, make empathy an important part of customer communication and experience. 10. 1 This conceptual and semantic confusion has practical implications for clinical practice, research and medical education. “When I am done, if I have got something wrong, I would appreciate it if you would correct me, if that is ok?”. Empathy Vs. Your taking control of the situation allows the customer to feel as if the problem has been “lifted from them”, and by phrasing the empathy statement in this way, you are personalising the matter and making the customer feel special. Empathy is an important skill for service professionals to master. Sympathy – Definition, Origin, and Examples. Customer service directors know this well. Clarabridge Celebrates Customer Achievements in 2020. 3. In the following video, Neil Martin of The First Word shares some of his favourite empathy phrases and how to blend them into apology letters and emails. 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